Secrets of the Administration Guild #4 Performance Guidelines
Some may quibble about this tip, but I rank it pretty high for building high-performance IBM/Domino servers. This suggestion answers the question, "How much performance can I expect from my server?" Answer: "Look it up."
My brother, Del, is a VP at an engineering firm and told me a great anecdote that sets the tone for this tip. His firm was making a proposal for some air-handling equipment for an office building. They needed to know the volume of air a particular fan could generate at a specific RPM. My brother, Del, handed the task to a very bright engineer (PhD) who went to work on it. Later in the afternoon, Del checked on the status of the project. The engineer was deep in calculus, figuring on the fan's blade pitch, the surface area, and speed of rotation. Del shook his head, walked into his own office and called the manufacturer. In less than ten minutes he had the answer.
Who do we call? Some vendors have on-line configurators to assist in selecting the right equipment--but I'm looking for more than suggested processor count or storage options.
Think of preparing an off-the-lot car for a local road race. How can I increase the output; what are the best ways to configure and tweak performance? IBM/Lotus has supplied this information for years. And, yet, I have met few administrators who trouble themselves to read and analyze the reports at http://www.notesbench.org or leaf through the Redbooks (e.g. ND6 Linux, Domino on W2K)
Notesbench is really a consortium--where hardware vendors can take a course in stress-testing their Domino installations, or have their systems benchmarked and published. For a benchmark to be validated, everything about the installation must be documented: notes.ini settings, what tasks are running (or not), server and conflguration document choices, network operating
One of the most valuable data points provided by Notesbench reports is Domino statistics. Haven’t you ever wondered if your statistics are within range? What would happen if you changed your NOS to Linux? Now you can look at the account of an optimized server, similar to your own, and verify your own statistics for items like Mail.AverageDeliverTime, Mail.PeakMessageDeliveryRate, and a mixture of platform statistics. Notesbench is a reality check that leaves me the assurance that my architecture is well designed. Anything that can give me a high comfort level is a great tip.
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